The Blending Train
Beginning
By
Rationale: Blending is putting together
individual sounds
smoothly to make words. It is an important part to becoming a skillful
fluent
reader. This lesson is designed to help children to learn to blend
sounds. It
is focused on the short vowel sounds of e = /e/ and i = /i/, however it
can be
used for other short vowels as well. It will help students to become
more aware
of blending in spoken words through visuals or pictures.
Materials:
·
Book:
Red Gets
Fed (Educational Insights)
·
Velcro
letter
cards (Index cards): e, i, b, c, f, g, h, l, k, m, n, p, r, t, w
·
(Blending
Train) A
poster board with a large train carrying three carts. Velcro each cart
·
Class
set of
letter tiles for each student
·
Class
set of Elkonin
letterboxes
·
Velcro
picture
poster, bulletin board with tacks or a pocket chart containing: pig, big, wig, bed, hen, kid, lip, pet, fig,
fin, pin, wet, red, net (You can have as many pictures as you want)
(Optional: Tricky pictures: cat, mop, dog,
can, map)
Procedures:
1.
Introduce the lesson by explaining what is
blending. Today we are going
to talk about blending. Blending
is when you put all the sounds in a word together smoothly. It is
important
that you know how to blend so that you can become a great reader. Review short vowels sounds. e = /e/ like a
creaky door and i = /i/ like sticky icky glue. Show the various
correspondence
pictures and ask if they can think of words to go under each sound.
2.
Ask students: Have you ever put together a train set and
you had
to connect each part to make the whole train. Blending is the same way.
You
have to connect the sounds of letters to make a word. For example, if I
have
the word pet. Put the word pet on the blending train. Say p-e-t. What
word am I
saying? Pet. Very good. P-e-t (pointing to
each letter). Model as many
words as needed.
3.
Give each
student their letter tiles and Elkonin boxes. Say: I am going to say
more words in a funny way and I want you to think about what the word
may be.
P-i-g. Repeat slower: ppp-iii-ggg. Now look at the picture board. Ask students to raise their hands if they
know the mystery word. Call on a student to come up and take that
picture off
of the board. What is the mystery word? Pig. That’s correct. Very
Good. Now
I want you to make the word pig using your tiles and boxes.
Walk around to see if it
is being done correctly. Model blending
the word pig on the blending train. P-i-g (Pointing to each letter). Do
as many
pictures that time will allow.
4.
Have
students to practice blending using the letter tiles. Now I’m going to show you a picture and say
the
picture in a funny way. Then I want you to make the word by yourself. Show
a picture of a wig. Say w-i-g. Make the mystery word. Ask what is
the
mystery word? Wig. Very good.
5.
Read Red
Gets Fed in small groups. Make a list of some words from the book on
the board.
Say the words in a funny way. Have them to tell you what the word is.
For
example: rr-ee-dd. Continue to model by pointing to each letter while
saying
the sound. What is the
mystery word
I’m saying? Red. Good Job!
6.
For
assessment, say more words in a funny way, but do not use pictures to
give a hint.
Have them to say the words back to you or make the words with letter
tiles.
Walk around to see who is catching on and who needs a little more help. Then say more
words, but have students to write them for individual assessment.
Reference: Eldredge, J.L. (2005). Teaching
and Decoding: Why and How/2nd Ed.
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